The board member representing South East zone in the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Dr. Kenneth Ugbala has said that President Bola Tinubu has given the agency a marching order to ensure that all the roads across the country are maintained.
Dr. Ugbala who dismissed insinuations that the South East roads are not receiving the needed attention compared to that of the Northern region insisted that roads in the South East region have been receiving good attention under President Bola Tinubu.
He stated this in his Okoffia hometown, Ezza South local government area of Ebonyi State while interacting with journalists.
“The President has given us a marching order to make sure that all the roads in the nation are being attended to. Our idea is that there should be an aggressiveness in attending to that responsibility.
“If you watch from Abakaliki to Enugu you see that there is maintenance going on by FEMA. The insinuation that the South East zone was being neglected in road construction by the federal government is false and malicious.”
He noted that the Enugu-Onitsha road was under construction, including the 9th mile/ Gboko/Makurdi road and some other roads within the zone benefiting from the coastal road projects of the Tinubu administration.
Ugbala opined that the president accommodated many roads in the zone in this year’s budget.
“The nation is just like a basket, and there is food. Everybody is scrambling for more. But even if that had ever been in practice before we came on board, I know that the Southeast roads are receiving good attention. We are benefiting from the coastal road too, the ring road.
“These are things that have never happened to us. From Enugu to Onitsha is under construction. From Gboko to Makurdi coming to 9th miles is under construction.
“So, I think Southeast, if ever we are neglected, I don’t think that the present administration is neglecting us. All we need is to exercise patience with our president and of course the Minister for Works. We are going to get the best of this administration. That is why we call on our people to continue to support”, he stated.
Ugbala, a former Secretary to the Ebonyi State Government (SSG), advocated for a maintenance culture on road projects to ensure durability.
“We are aware that as a nation we need to work very seriously on our maintenance culture. Because the best is not only to build roads, the best is to maintain the roads. When you build roads and they are not maintained, you find out that we are losing everything we have.
“You can see maintenance going on from Abakaliki to Afikpo. We are still attending to it. Eight places need urgent attention. If you go across Abia to Enugu State and parts of Anambra, in fact, all the Southeast states are receiving attention.
“This year we want to improve what we have been doing. A lot of roads have been accommodated in the budget.
Our resources may not be enough in line with our demands, but we are concerned in making sure that there is transparency. We place value for money for what we do. It is not easy battling with the contractors”.
